> sendmail is now running (thanks) and fetchmail seems happier.  However,
> received mail does seem to be getting into my ~/mail folder.  The
> output from fetchmail -v now looks like this:
> 
 ...

> The remarks about "flushed" and "DELE 1" make me think something's
> still not right.  Do I have to do any additional configuration to
> ensure local delivery of received mail?

I believe "DELE 1" indicates that the message is being deleted from the
server.

Did you check /var/spool/mail/$USER ?